[Cranium Rats] Cleaving the Beast in Twain.

[Thunder_God]

There is a thought running through my head.

Cranium Rats is not one game, it is 1.5 games, it's two games that try to take the space of one, but they clash.

If seperated, they'd make two 75% complete games.

So here's an idea, of seperating CR into three projects:
1) Cranium Rats, where I try to make it into one coherent game.
2) Cranium, which is about the psychological impact.
3) Rats, which is about violence and interwoven storylines. The Pulp Fiction, L4yer Cake, Snatch! game.

The results of this thread will probably yield many pieces that are fit for the design bin, for they are good and unused, or good and re-useable, like the Trust mechanic that was posted on the Forge and made its way into TMW and CoS.

I already thought about some things that are obviously going to be in Rats, but aren't in Cranium Rats, which makes for bad design from my side since these things are critical to some of my design goals, and had been noticed for being absent during playtesting.

I will post on what led to this on Thursday, as well as my first posts regarding the issue, I'm leaving this beast laying here for a reason.
To see what ideas you people can give me, and if my ideas will match yours.

Feel free to tell me which bits belong to which game, what pieces are missing, how to make CR into one beast, etc.

And thank you for your time!
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"I am light. I am dark. I must give my life to serve; not even death can release me."
- Selenia, Dark Angel.

[Levi]

...This is tricky.
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levi.kornelsen@gmail.com

[Thunder_God]

But also greasy.
_________________
"I am light. I am dark. I must give my life to serve; not even death can release me."
- Selenia, Dark Angel.

[Thunder_God]

First, I'll note that most of the mechanics for Cranium are already present, but not so Rats. This is part of the problem of Cranium Rats, that some of the stuff that should be there, simply isn't.

I often reflected that there are no mechanics for the storylines to interweave, and there's no reason for you to choose violence, seeing as all types of Conflict are resolved the same.

I am considering making Storylines the core of Rats, with some sort of Plot Points, Acts and an interactive Relationship Map.

Every time you use Violence or violence is done unto your character, gain 1 plot point. You are limited by the Act regarding the possible targets for your violence(maybe also type of violence, aka intimidation, physical, killing).

In Polaris, you have one NPC/Aspect that all characters must have something to do with, and that connects them, in Rats, to begin with, all PCs must be no more than two "skips" apart on the Relationship maps from at least another PC.
All scenes must include someone who is 1 spot from you, which means you're affecting someone who is also connected to another PC. As Acts progress, you may touch those who are further apart from you.
Another option is, you gain 1 Plot Point when you introduce into your scenes characters that are connected to another PC. Thus drawing them into your part of the Relationship Map.

As for who controls what, I guess I'll take a spot somewhere between CR and Polaris; In your scenes, the PC you own is the protagonist, the other important characters that appear, even if they are PCs, act as secondary characters who showcase your characters, they can come to more harm than you, in fact, early on, PCs can only die in other characters' scenes.

Assuming the game has at least 3 players, though really hoping for 4 or up, each important PC who is introduced is played by its own player, each character is played by someone who is connected to it(one spot from it) who isn't the Framing Player, and control of minor NPCs and important PCs who are connected to more than one player are given to a player whose PC does not appear in the scene, assuming such exists.

Yes, try not to have more than two PCs(your own and one other) in the same scene, or at least leave one PC out.

More details about the Relationship Map, Plot Points and such later, right now I'm dropping a bunch of tar on the holes in the half called Rats.
Oh yes, from CR, the Legends will have to go, but most of the footnotes capture the Rats tone.
_________________
"I am light. I am dark. I must give my life to serve; not even death can release me."
- Selenia, Dark Angel.

[Thunder_God]

My thoughts keep returning to the same issue.

How do I split narration rights? In a scene, you have your Protagonist, but there may also appear other PCs, major NPCs and random "Colour" NPCs.

Who controls what, and who is in charge of narration?

Any ideas?
_________________
"I am light. I am dark. I must give my life to serve; not even death can release me."
- Selenia, Dark Angel.

[Filip Luszczyk]

...

[Thunder_God]

Can you please rephrase?

Also, Narration is another area for competition, and having it assigned a certain way makes sure there's friction in the story and not that everything goes the way one player wants it.
_________________
"I am light. I am dark. I must give my life to serve; not even death can release me."
- Selenia, Dark Angel.

[Filip Luszczyk]

...